Which actually takes a little bit of the shine of it for me too. I like a level playing field.

I know, could you imagine if you stacked the milk down the alcohol isles or the cereal in the frozen section. Your feet wouldnt touch.

A better comparison would be if we charged some customers £15 for a bottle of vodka and then dropped it to £5 for one customer that moans about not receiving any handouts!!

Funny you should say that because i never receive any hand-outs but only today i got a cheap bottle of Vodka.

OR if we charged customers £10 a bottle for vodka but increased the price to £15 when a certain customer came into the shop!

You mean £18.

or they predict needing 500 customers a day to break even but the store is only big enough for 300 customers per day, so the store enrols the help of a retired local MP to secure funding for an extension.

Would charge them £30 a head personally. If the stand is empty so be it!

What about the other two Super League clubs that are missed out of your post?

Finnegan and lovegrove were the first in different cases.

Must have been instances earlier than that. What about Phil Mckenzie late 80s?

I mean under the new rules.

Quote ="Gordon Gekko"Couldn't agree more mate. I'm sick to the back teeth with the game at the moment, despite the fact i have family interest in it.'" Galea was declared by the the HDM as "off quota" in August: www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html With the usual flannel/bollox comment from the RFL on Mason: "However, immigration is a complex matter and cases are considered individually on a range of issues."

Quote ="Gordon Gekko"Couldn't agree more mate. I'm sick to the back teeth with the game at the moment, despite the fact i have family interest in it.'" Galea was declared by the the HDM as "off quota" in August: www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html With the usual flannel/bollox comment from the RFL on Mason: "However, immigration is a complex matter and cases are considered individually on a range of issues."

How could Rovers sign him in the first place if thet had too many quota players?
So a Tongan passport takes him off the quota?
Lets hope we can get Moa and Hame off this ever expanding quota then !

20 Tongans plus 5 homegrown - it's the future.

Number 2 would be illegal and even less enforceable than fed/non-fed.

I don't think the RFL do that bad a job, within the constraints of reality. If the press stories regarding Mason are true, I admit that is bizarre. I also think Warrington being able to pay-off Hicks outside the cap is a farce.

It looks like Rovers are now closing their Academy and Youth development squads!
Whats the point in having them?

To produce young players, some of whom will stick around hopefully and become senior players. If you think that signing our senior players predominately from the NRL rather than SL is wrong, then fair enough. If you think our academy should be producing seasoned pros in their mid-late 20s or that we should do without senior players for a couple of rounds of licensing, then I'd think that strange.

If the story is correct, you've got a legitimate gripe (fairness/consistency and lack thereof), but people seem to prefer this red herring.

None. Promote the likes of Spaven, Esders, Latus etc to comply with the homegrown quota, don't play them, bin them off, repeat, whilst bringing in more "off quota" Tongans.

The RFL's arm's are tied because of the legalarity of it all. I thought all clubs agreed to the reduction in the quota rules but it looks like only some are obeying them knowing that they cannot really be forced. Clubs want a level playing field with the salary cap etc. but it seems they couldn't careless on the quota when it suits them, it's hypocritical imo.

I have no problem whatsoever with Mason coming to Super League, infact it will be good for the profile of the sport. I have however got a problem if the HDM's story is correct and yet another dispensation has been granted.

Great word

It amazes me how this comes up as an arguement everytime. Look to Europe and some of the Football federations (Germany for 1) and I think you will see how well its enforced abroad. The problem we have in this country is that there is little or no desire across all sport to bring in self regulation. As a result sports and especially national teams suffer. Interestingly Cricket authorities were saying exactly the same just 12 months ago and yet I bet there is nothing said about it this year.
I also think that our wonderful Govt would love it if we actually stopped importing players as it will help with their immigration quotas. (Is a RL player a skilled worker or non skilled?)

I personally think its time the salary cap was scrapped. Its clearly not working. imo. Clubs are still spending beyond their means and the competition is now totally dumbed down. (Just a casual observation of my own I will admit)

The sport will never have credibility when short term thinking rules the roost. When Sky came in & gave the game **** loads of money, clubs should have spent a big proportion of that on Academy set ups & stadiums. What we have now is (after all this time) clubs still scrambling round to bring stadiums up to scratch, & finding ways of getting second rate players off a "quota". It would be laughable if it wasn't happening in the sport we have followed for God knows how long.
Add that to the non-policing of the salary cap, & the desperate attempts to prop up expansion clubs without any forward planning, then the sport will never be anything other than a minor one.

I agree,

I do think our club are taking this on board with a large investment in youth, although it is hard not to see immediate success.

I've had a look and I can't see anything about a well-enforced German-born quota in the Bundesliga. In fact, behind the EPL they seem to have more foreign players than anybody else. Any chance of a link?

The Kolpak agreement resulted from a challenge to the quota in German handball, via EU law.

Russia (outside the EU obviously) has a well enforced quota in football - with mixed results.